Pink-ink

I think I forgot to tell this most important story and post accompanying movie...GASP!

We'll start with one of my favorite new words! Richie has known many of the colors for quite some time, but has just started to verbalize them. (Actually, he's verbalizing virtually everything he hears even if we don't try to directly teach it to him. Like today after dinner he said, "Bib!" and tugged at his bib because he wanted it off.)

I think I've already mentioned Lellow, which was my fav for several weeks. Momma was teaching him other colors, too. Richie has a tendency to drop the last syllable, so when she taught him pink, she put particular emphasis on the hard 'k' at the end. This resulted in Richie saying, "Pink-ink!" In an effort to emulate the emphasis. That, is my new favorite Richie word! I make him say it over and over again! I have to because soon he's going to drop the -ink part. I really should take a movie of him saying it. I digress.

Richie and I went to the Science Center on the 12th to join in the egg drop contest! They provide you with a handful of materials and an egg in a plastic bag. We had to construct a device that would protect the egg as it fell three stories in the science center. As usually, we were late leaving the house and by the time we arrived, we (I) had a total of 10 minutes to construct such a device. I had access to: empty bottles, plastic bags, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, tape, yarn and packing peanuts. I remembered from Boy Scouts that you want to distribute the force along one of the ends of the egg and not the side. I immediately went for a paper towel roll, but it was not wide enough, so I cut a slit down the side and slid the egg in. Put take along the bottom and filled the tube with packing peanuts and taped the partially split tube up. Unlike most bags used as parachutes, I used the four corners of the bag with the yarn to attach the chute to the tube. Most people were just using the bag handles. Then, some tape around the top of the tube just to make sure the yarn stayed in the little holes I had made along the top of the tube. All of this in 10 minutes! Oh, and where was Richie you ask? (Especially since it was just the two of us?) Well, I did the only thing I could. I gave him a pair of scissors to play with so he'd stay next to me. He's not allowed to have them at home, so I know it would occupy him for a good amount of time and they were kid's scissors, so we was not likely to permanently injury himself. Thankfully, he did not cut his pants, which is what I was expecting him to do.

When we went to turn in our egg-protecting-contraption (which was far less of a contraption than many of the other contestants), we were asked to name it. I looked at Richie and said, "Should we name it Pink-ink?" The name was greeted with a big smile and a nod of the head. So, without further adieu, here is the maiden voyage of Pink-Ink!!!!!